The undying loyalty some moviegoers have to critics and their over-the-top-opinions is one of the most disappointing parts of the movie industry, or any entertainment industry for that matter. It’s the one subject of controversy since humanity first learned to entertain others through the art of storytelling; those among us who tell you how good or bad a movie is, as if their opinion is suddenly transformed into fact. Hint: It’s not.
Critics can be the shit stain of entertainment. As is apparent in Batman v Superman. A fantastic film that audiences enjoyed thoroughly, but numerous critics who are used to being coddled by Marvel decided to trash the film because of its “dark” nature. (That’s just my opinion.) The fact that film critics are complaining that a film isn’t “family friendly” when the reality of the comic book story is much darker than what Marvel has the guts to attempt on-screen, is utterly stupid in every aspect of the word (in my opinion).
It seems critics and reviewers forget one basic fact about life: Movies are subjective. How good or bad a movie is depends entirely on the opinion of the individual viewer. Yes, that means you, not a critic. No one has the power to slay a movie as bad or good by pretending their opinion is fact. Which is essentially the problem with reviewers and critics, as they pretend their opinions are overarching truths. They aren’t, and they never will be.
This plague of moronic thinking has spread to the entertainment industry as a whole, severely affecting video games. When a new game comes out from a large publisher and/or developer, you have cases of publishers writing checks to news outlets so they receive a better rating. Or even worse, they threaten to cancel an advertising deal on the site if a review is bad about their product, forcing the magazine/site to loose money where they may not be able to afford it. This is all built upon the foundation that critics and their opinions are considered the word of god, and that no one can say otherwise.
You bet your ass I’m saying otherwise. It’s damaging to entertainment to have people with that kind of idiotic mentality. Audiences in several industries believe critics and their reviews to the last word and allow that to tilt their predetermined bias for a film when they are walking into the theater. This creates a reality distortion field regarding whether the film is good or bad. You can have one situation where a moviegoer chooses not to read reviews, and head into the movie blind. They end up coming out enjoying the film, finding out later it had terrible reviews. Take that same situation and modify one variable: Have the person read all the reviews and watch the movie afterwards. You’ll see a change where the audience member now has a negative outlook on the film due to the fact they had their minds made up by someone else. This limits free thinking. It stops people from making their own decisions on whether they like something or not.
You bet your ass I’m saying otherwise. It’s damaging to entertainment to have people with that kind of idiotic mentality. Audiences in several industries believe critics and their reviews to the last word and allow that to tilt their predetermined bias for a film when they are walking into the theater. This creates a reality distortion field regarding whether the film is good or bad. You can have one situation where a moviegoer chooses not to read reviews, and head into the movie blind. They end up coming out enjoying the film, finding out later it had terrible reviews. Take that same situation and modify one variable: Have the person read all the reviews and watch the movie afterwards. You’ll see a change where the audience member now has a negative outlook on the film due to the fact they had their minds made up by someone else. This limits free thinking. It stops people from making their own decisions on whether they like something or not.
So how does it change? By taking away the power from the critics and giving it back to the average moviegoer. Dump critics entirely. The only ones who should be doing reviews and giving ratings should be the audience. Critics are nothing more than people watching a movie, and they should to stop pretending they are more than that. No, they aren’t special. No, they don’t know more about how good or bad a story is than you. They are no different than people, so why the hell is everyone treating them like they know the secrets behind a good movie or bad movie? They don’t, and they never have.
Fact of the matter is, a story is good if you decide it is good. No one else can decide that for you.
Stop reading critic reviews before a film comes out. Read audience reviews if you’d like, but go see the film first to form your own opinion. That’s how you fix the problem.
An article that has needed to be written for over a decade now. Thanks for this.
You’re welcome. The ‘Gage Rage’ is not to be f’d with. Now, (auto-bot posts aside) lets see how on/off the critics nail the Ghostbuster Remake.
You come across as very salty over the Batman v Superman reviews, not to mention this article sounds like something a high-schooler would write.
Mr. Slickster, a critic is just an audience member like anyone else. They just happen to be an audience member who has an opinion that other people find intelligent or insightful. I understand that if Roger Ebert hated a movie that I liked, it doesn’t suddenly mean it is a “bad” movie or that I waste my time by watching it. It is merely an opinion, and it carries as much weight as you give it. I personally love reading movie reviews because they allow me to analyze a game or film in a way I perhaps hadn’t thought of before.
Blasting critics because they disliked a movie that you enjoyed just comes across as immature. If you like something, support it. If you don’t than don’t.
By no means am I blasting people simply reviewing the film and stating their opinions. I’m stating the obvious that many specific critics judge a film and state it as fact, rather than just opinion. This causes a ripple effect of difference between critic reviews and audience reviews.
Critics are not treated like normal movie goers. They are treated as if their word is god, which it isn’t. They see films first, and in many cases are offered money to give a film or video game a higher rating. This has been proven true in many cases. Not in all cases, but many cases.
This reaches far beyond the reviews for Batman v Superman. I simply stated the film as the most recent example. Go ahead and compare the critic scores on Rotten Tomato for Batman v Superman and Sharknado (P.S., Sharknado is at 86%, with BvS at under 35%). The audience reviews are the complete opposite, with BvS getting praise among many individuals.
It’s just another example of the idiotic mindset many critics have these days which is that they aren’t an average movie goer, but someone deemed “special”. They aren’t. The sooner we realize that, the better.
“I personally love reading movie reviews because they allow me to analyze a game or film in a way I perhaps hadn’t thought of before.” – Which is why I said audience reviews should be the only ones that matter. Critic reviews are a waste.
Gage for POTUS 2016
Adam,
Seems you know a lot about critiquing movies. Want to write for Slickster?